Love Always, Prudence
by Helena Mira
Summary: Prudence writes a very special letter to both of her Mommies for Mother's Day.


_I do not own these characters and make no profit from their use._

**Love Always, Prudence**

This Mother's Day, I am the luckiest girl because I have not one, but two real Mommies. My first Mommy is my angel Mommy. She lives in heaven with Trelawney's Mum and Papa. Trelawney is my almost sister. When she first came to live with us, I thought that she was my sister, even though everyone else said that she wasn't. They said that she was like my sister because her real sister was Nanny. But now Nanny is my earth Mommy. I used to call her my real Mommy, but then Nana told me that earth Mommies and angel Mommies are both real Mommies. Trelawney's real Mum is an angel Mommy too.

My angel Mommy was named Helen. She had me when I was born. She loved me very much before she got sick and went to heaven. I don't remember her because I was too little, but my brother Hal told me that she loved me very much. He said that she wanted a little girl after she had two little boys so that she could buy her pretty dresses. I am really glad that she got me before she got sick so that she could have her wish. I am glad that I could make her happy without even trying.

My earth Mommy is named Phoebe. Trelawney told me that both my Mommies have something in common. Both of their names mean light. She told me that this makes them both special. Helen comes from the Greek god Helios or "sun" or "bright light." Phoebe comes from the Greek word "phoebos" or "bright," like the goddess Phoebe (or Selene), who was the goddess of the moon. Trelawney knows lots of stuff about the Greek gods and goddesses. She said that they had lots of names. She thinks that it is very funny that Daddy married two women whose names mean the exact same thing, except that one is sunlight and the other is moonlight.

Now that I have a real Mommy on earth, it means that I have someone who takes care of me every day, who makes sure that I do all my homework, and who kisses me goodnight when I go to bed. When Mommy was Nanny, she could do all these things too, but there was one very important thing that she couldn't do.

All my life, as long as I can remember, I have wanted a baby sister. But the only way for me to get one was to have a new Mommy. So Nanny could do everything for me that a Mommy could do except give me a baby sister. She had to marry Daddy to do that. Before she married Daddy, he promised to try very, very hard to give me a baby sister.

All of his trying worked, because in the summer, Mommy is going to have a little baby. The little baby may be a sister or a brother. I'm hoping for a sister, but if it's a brother, then Daddy said that they would keep on trying for my sister. He always smiles when he says that. His smile says that he must like the trying part. I hope that he doesn't have to try too much. I already have two brothers and I don't want too many more. Something tells me that a little brother could be even worse than a big brother. That's what my friend Mary Jane Shuster says anyway. And she should know. She has two little brothers.

Trelawney told me that if Mommy's baby is a little girl, then her name will be Margaret. That was the name of Trelawney and Mommy's angel Mum. It was also the name of Grammy's angel Mommy. Trelawney said that in families, people like to name their children for other family members. That's why Hal was named after Daddy and Butch (whose real name is Bentley, but he hates that name) was named after Uncle Ben. Uncle Bob was named after Grampie. If the baby is a boy then he will be named Owen after Mommy and Trelawney's Papa.

I asked Daddy one time why I was named Prudence. I wanted know who I was named after. He said that my angel Mommy had an aunt Prudence that she loved very much. She always said that if she had a little girl then she would call her Prudence. My earth Mommy was named after an aunt too, her Aunt Phoebe Figalilly. They even have the exact same name! Trelawney wasn't named after one relative. She was named after a whole family. Before she got married, her Mum's last name was Trelawney. She named her Trelawney Rose because she was born in May when all the roses were in bloom.

Even though Trelawney doesn't have an earth Mommy, she has an almost earth Mommy. She calls Grammy her "Mama Kate" because last winter she went to live with Grammy and Grampie. Grammy does all the things for her that a Mommy does. Trelawney was supposed to live with us after her Mum and Papa died, but it was too hard for Mommy to take care of four children when she was going to have a baby.

When Uncle David came to visit everyone was scared that he was going to make her come back to England to live with him. But he decided to leave Trelawney with Grammy and Grampie. It made Mommy and Trelawney very sad that they could not live together anymore, but then Grammy had a wonderful idea. She said that Trelawney didn't have to go to school, but she could stay home and spend time with Mommy while all the rest of us went to school. Grammy used to be a teacher, so she can teach her at home. My brother Hal is so smart that he teaches her math and science.

You see, everyone in my family goes to school, even my Daddy. But Daddy teaches in a school for older people called a university. He is always very busy. That's why Grammy and Grampie moved down the street. They wanted help Mommy. They also wanted to spend more time with us kids. Grammy is short for grandmother. So she's kind of like a mother too. Most of the time she is very nice, but she can be very strict. She makes me do more chores and she scolds me when she thinks that I am being selfish.

She always thinks that I am selfish when I want to spend lots of time with my Mommy. She says that sometimes, I need to share my Mommy with Trelawney and my brothers. She forgets that I never had a Mommy before. At least not one that I can remember. I feel like I should be able to have extra time to make up for the time that I had no Mommy. But she doesn't agree. She says that in families, everyone shares their love with everyone else, no favorites.

Before Christmas, my angel Mommy's Mommy, Nana, didn't like my earth Mommy. She thought that if we had a new Mommy then we would forget about our angel Mommy. Butch tried to explain that it wasn't that we forgot about our angel Mommy, it was just that we didn't remember her, except for Hal. Butch and I were too little. She said so many mean things about Mommy that Butch and I didn't ever want to see her again. It was our idea, but she still blamed Mommy anyway.

Then a miracle happened. Nana and Papa went to the church Christmas pageant in secret so that they could see us. They were trying to sneak out after the show but Trelawney made them stop. Nobody knows how she did it, but she made Nana love Mommy. Pastor Jason said that it was a Christmas miracle. I was very happy.

Then I found out something very special about me. Nana said that I looked just like my angel Mommy when I was dressed up as an angel for the pageant. I thought that she meant that I looked like an angel and that my other Mommy was an angel too. But the next day when she came for Christmas dinner and she showed me something.

She brought some pictures of my angel Mommy when she was a little girl. Mommy said that when you looked at them that they looked exactly like me. The only reason you could tell that they were pictures of my angel Mommy was that they were black and white and she was wearing old-fashioned clothes. Nana also brought some pictures of her when she was older, like Hal. She was very pretty.

Trelawney told me that I was lucky because I had a very pretty Mommy and since I looked like her now then I would look like her when I grew up. She told me that she looked just like her Mum too. That was lucky for her since her Mum was beautiful. She said that she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Well, I think that my angel Mommy is very beautiful too.

Trelawney says that every time that she looks in the mirror, she can see her Mum looking back at her. So I looked in the mirror very carefully and then I remembered what the pictures of my angel Mommy looked like. Then I saw that my Mommy was looking back at me. I asked Trelawney to look too, be sure that I was right. She smiled and said that of course I was right. Now if I ever want to see my angel Mommy, all I have to do is look in the mirror!

A lot of people think that Mommies are just the women who gave birth to you. But in my family, the Mommies are the people who take care of you and love you just like a Mommy. Mommy always says that you can never have too much love or too much family. I think that it's also true that you can never have too many Mommies. In my family we believe that love makes a family. And I think that love makes a Mommy.

Some people say that my Mommy is really my stepmother and that my brothers and I are really her stepchildren. But I think that they are wrong. In all of the fairytales, the stepmothers are the wicked ones. But my Mommy is never wicked. She is always very, very nice to us. I don't know what the "step" part is supposed to mean, but I know that my Mommy isn't one of them.

This Mother's Day is going to be a very special one for my Mommy. That's because it is her very first Mother's Day as a Mommy. Trelawney told us all the things that she and Mommy used to do for their Mum on Mother's Day. They would cut her flowers from the yard and put them on the breakfast table. Then they would make her a very special breakfast. But they never made her breakfast in bed.

She said that breakfast in bed was not a good idea for us either. We made a big mess when we did it the morning after Mommy and Daddy came home from getting married. They eloped, so it was a big surprise. We were very upset because they got married without us. But Mommy didn't want to have a big wedding because she would have missed her Mum too much. Daughters need mothers when they have big weddings. That's just the way that it is.

Trelawney and Mommy would each make their Mum a card and a little gift. In their family, everyone likes to have homemade gifts. So they would put the cards and little gifts for their Mum on the kitchen table and she would open them at breakfast before church. After church, they would give their Mum the day off and do all the work around the house and in the garden. They would cook her a special dinner. They always cooked her favorite meal for her.

Trelawney told us all about this because she said that it would be a really nice surprise for Mommy if we gave her a Mother's Day exactly like they used to give their Mum in England. Hal thought that it was a really great idea. Butch thought it was a great idea too, but he wasn't sure about doing all the work. He'd rather play baseball.

Hal told him that he could play baseball any old time he wanted and that Mother's Day only came once a year. Since this was Mommy's first Mother's Day then we all should make it really special for her. I agreed with Hal, so it was two against one. Grammy said that she would help us with the cooking so that we didn't turn the kitchen into a big mess like we always did when we cooked. I asked Trelawney if that was okay and she said yes. She said that that way the meal would be edible.

So I am really looking forward to Mother's Day. You see, it isn't just Mommy's first Mother's Day as a Mommy. It is my first Mother's Day with an earth Mommy. Trelawney said that when we go to church that we should thank God for our angel Mommies, because if we didn't have angel Mommies, then we wouldn't even be here. She said that we should thank God for our new Mommy too.

Butch wanted know whom she was going to thank God for because she didn't really have a Mommy. I held my breath when he asked her that because I thought that it would make her sad. But it didn't, well, not too much. She smiled her sad little smile that she smiled whenever she thought of her Mum.

She said thank she was going to thank God for her Mama Kate. She explained that Mother's Day isn't just for real mothers, it is for all the special women who are like mothers to us, whether they are family or not. She said that she felt very blessed to have her Mama Kate. She was the next best thing to her Mum.

And Mama Kate is very special because she is just like a Mommy to our Mommy too. She always wanted little girls, just like my angel Mommy. But God sent her three boys. So now she gets to be a Mommy for Trelawney and Mommy. I think that God is a very smart person. He made things turn out so that everyone would be happy. Even Nana is happy. We thought that she would never be happy again.

So this is my little story about my two Mommies for Mother's Day. Since I didn't know how to write all the words, Trelawney wrote them all down for me, just the way I told her to. She didn't change a thing. She said that Mommy would like it better if it sounded like me than if she fixed it up so that there weren't any digression. I don't know what a digression is. I suppose that someday when I really learn to write, I won't make any.

Trelawney has very pretty handwriting and that will make this story look very special. It is my gift to both my Mommies on Mother's Day. I am going to give the copy to my earth Mommy. I hope that she will put it with the picture book I made her last summer so that she can keep it forever and ever.

But Trelawney said not to worry when I said that I wished that I could give it to my angel Mommy. She said that my angel Mommy could hear every word of my story and that she was smiling. She was happy that I have an earth Mommy again to take care of me. Trelawney says that angels in heaven are never jealous. They are only sad when the people they love on earth are sad. So my angel Mommy is happy because I have an earth Mommy to take care of me and love me and make me happy.

So on this Mother's Day, I am very happy and so are my two Mommies. My angel Mommy is happy because my earth Mommy loves me so much and takes such good care of me. My earth Mommy is happy because if it wasn't for my angel Mommy then I wouldn't be here. So now I want to say something very special to my two Mommies in my own handwriting. But I'm also going to speak it out loud so that my angel Mommy can hear it too.

Dear Earth Mommy,

Thank you for teaching me that you can never have too much love or too much family. And thank you for teaching me that you can never have too many Mommies. Someday I hope that I grow up to be a Mommy just like you.

Love always,

Your new daughter Prudence

Dear Angel Mommy,

May you please ask God to send me a baby sister instead of a baby brother? Two brothers are enough, thank you. I love you very much. I will try to always be a good girl so that maybe someday I can meet you in heaven.

Love always,

Your old daughter Prudence

P. S. Trelawney helped me spell the big words, but I wrote them all myself.

_This story is dedicated to all the mothers and mother figures everywhere today, Mother's Day, 2012. Happy Mother's Day!_


End file.
